


My Friend, I've Known You A Lifetime Ago

by Kaoru_chibimaster



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Friendship/Love, Happy Ending, Humor, Ignoct Week, M/M, Reincarnation, SO MUCH FLUFF, Worldbuilding, because i'm a worldbuilding ho
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 15:02:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13615860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaoru_chibimaster/pseuds/Kaoru_chibimaster
Summary: Noctis found himself hunched over his Lucian History assignment when a familiar voice met his ears: “It was actually May 16th.”





	My Friend, I've Known You A Lifetime Ago

**Author's Note:**

> For Ignoct week day 3: Reincarnation AU. Mostly that with a splash of college AU (but that’s not a focus, I get enough of college every damn day).

On the summer’s night of 766 M.E., the sun was brought back. Unfortunately, humanity had taken a major blow from the ten years of darkness and near extinction had grinded advancement to a halt. Many were too concerned with rebuilding their houses and repopulating for technology to even go anywhere. Hell, for over a century the kingdom of Lucis was essentially stuck in the dark ages. There was electricity but it was minimal. Cell phones were all but useless in most parts of the world, and their uses were shoddy in the few places where there was reception. A lot of Niflheim’s technology was essentially lost as the Chancellor, the man behind the whole operation, was killed in the fabled Battle of the Stone. A battle so wreathed in myth and legend that many weren’t even sure it actually happened. Oh certainly King Noctis had been revered for bringing back the sun, and his name went down in history as the last great king of Lucis… Hell, he was so loved that Noctis’ own parents named him after said king. He never got over the grade school teasing…

But that wouldn’t go on his paper.

Sitting in the corner booth of the East Street café, Noctis tapped his pen against his report, still trying to figure out where he was going with it. He’d started off alright, he liked to think. He’d described the war with Niflheim, from the initiation of the expansion policy in 358 M.E. to the start of the war between Niflheim and Lucis in 725 M.E., and then even further to the birth of Prince Noctis, his life, his death, and the events afterwards. How, a year after his death, the calendar had been changed in respect to his life. The movement hadn’t been quite worldwide: Niflheim and Accordo still didn’t follow the new calendar and thus were currently in the year 1598 M.E. where Lucis and Tenebrae, who followed the new(ish) calendar, were in 831 L.C.. The time in between 766 and 831 was shaky. Niflheim as a whole had been held accountable for the ruin of the world, and though it barely had a populace by that point, overrun by daemons, what was left had paid the price dearly. It had been broken up into smaller provinces, still called Niflheim as a whole but each governed by separate governments. Citizens were stripped of their rights, denied entrance into other countries, and thrown into a national debt to pay for the damage their emperor had caused. What was even sadder about the whole situation was that the Aldercapt family had died out by that point. Not one of the people responsible for what happened was alive when the time came to pay the price. Instead, the innocent suffered.

Since their technology and the power behind it was lost, many people were cut off from traveling great distances at all. Trains weren’t running and car and boat repair was far too expensive to be conceivable for most people. Eventually, inevitably, the economy collapsed…or rather, what was left of it collapsed. The only saving grace was that there weren’t many people alive to even need a lot of money to keep them supported, but even then humanity was stretched thin. The world was dying, done in by ten years of no sunlight, and people were dying with it. From there the story split: some said the gods finally intervened and saved the lands, some say the king and the oracle used their magic to heal the lands from the afterlife, some say the star’s own spirit had healed the lands. Either way, things had started growing again a few decades after the king’s sacrifice. And, as mentioned, for over the next century or so, people focused on rebuilding and growing their numbers. It took another few centuries to reach the same level of prosperity that the world had experienced before the dark times. And a couple centuries more to surpass it.

But Noctis was getting ahead of himself. He was focusing on the pre-common era. Most specifically, the end of the ceasefire and the attack on Insomnia. It was an easy story to recount because it had been broadcast worldwide immediately after. The leader of the kingsglaive had betrayed the kingdom, murdered King Regis and caused the destruction of a large portion of Insomnia. The Old Wall had been brought to life but the damage had been done. The king was dead, the council was wiped out, the prince was pronounced dead and the crownsguard and kingsglaive were nearly destroyed. The provisional government, which had much later become the modern republic government of Lucis, had been in near shambles and had scrambled to salvage what was left of the newly ruined city. And all in one day: the fateful May sevent—wait no, sixteenth? Seventeenth? Damn. Noctis was terrible with dates. He only barely got by on remembering the correct years, but days? …He’d go with seventeenth. Hunched over his history assignment, Noctis started to scribble in exactly that.

“It was May 16th, actually.”

And promptly jumped in his seat when a familiar voice met his ears. Grimacing, he scrambled for his white-out, sticking his tongue out over his shoulder before quickly whiting out the line he’d scratched across his paper in his surprise.

“Really, Iggy?” he groaned, rewriting the whited-out words. He was met with a chuckle.

“Well I am being helpful,” he supplied. Noctis rolled his eyes as the other man sat down across from him.

A full four years his senior, twenty-six year old Ignis Scientia was a well-off business man with an addiction to caffeine that not even the furious flames of hellfire could burn away. He’d have nothing to do with senior college student Noctis under normal circumstances, but then the way they met was far from normal. Unless people typically mowed down innocent pedestrians on their bikes and then peddled them to the hospital over a small cut on the head that bled like a pig for slaughter and sent Noctis into a near panic attack. Ignis had been more upset that his coffee had been spilled than he was that he was bleeding from a head wound. Noctis had just been starting college at the time, eighteen and fresh out of high school…and too broke for a car, and so was terrified of going out into the world and immediately screwing up. So of course he went out into the world and immediately screwed up. Thankfully, Ignis had been pretty cordial about it. Noctis had offered to buy him another coffee and the two hit it off over their individual cups. They’d been friends ever since. Ignis frequently sat by Noctis and helped him with his schoolwork and Noctis, in turn, offered the company Ignis didn’t get much of otherwise. The man was a busybody through and through. Never made many friends, never wanted to, and Noctis was simply lucky enough to have pushed through that shell.

He also had the biggest crush on the older man, but that was another issue.

“It’d be more helpful for you not to ruin my paper,” Noctis said, shaking such thoughts out of his head. It’d taken him forever to stop blushing around Ignis, embarrassing as it was, and he wasn’t going to let it start again now.

“I’m surprised there’s even a paper to ruin. Couldn’t you simply type it up? Or submit it orally? The university has been accepting recorded essays for quite some time now,” Ignis said. He waved a hand over to the waitress and asked for the usual. Considering that he and Noctis spent almost every day there, The Usual was pretty well known among the staff.

“So the professor can hear me ‘um’ and ‘uh’ in high definition? No thanks, he probably thinks I’m incompetent enough when I do it in class.”

“With your grades? I highly doubt the word ‘incompetent’ even crosses his mind. Besides, everyone suffers speech disfluencies. You technically hadn’t answered my question, by the way.”

Noctis snorted at that. “Yeah, yeah. Pushy. Anyway, I feel more comfortable writing it first and then editing it as I type. I miss stuff when I type it first.”

Ignis peered over at the mess of a paper, riddle with white-outs, scratched out words, and notes scribbled in between sentences. “That usually works better when you can actually _read_ the paper.”

Noctis tapped Ignis’ foot under the table in reprimand, laughing. He knew his handwriting sucked and his paper looked terrible. But his methods worked and that was all that mattered.

“If my shitty handwritten paper means a good final one then I’m not complaining,” he said.

Two plates were set down in front of them then, a pastry each, as well as two cups filled with coffee. Ignis’ was black, because Noctis was sure he was actually a super-human from another planet that sucked out his co-workers’ souls and somehow imbued them into his coffee, and Noctis’ was loaded with enough cream and sugar to put a fully grown anak into a coma. He could admit he had a bit of a sweet tooth. And maybe hated the taste of coffee just a little bit. Naturally, he went for the pastry first and tried his hardest not to stare as Ignis picked up his cup and drank deeply from it.

“Speaking of,” Ignis started after he’d gone through half of the cup. “you’ve got finals coming up soon, don’t you? Ready for graduation?”

There were multiple answers to that. Noctis had applied for the ceremony, bought all of his supplies, spoken to all of his career counselors, and had even started sending out invitations. But the ceremony itself was coming up faster than Noctis would’ve liked, and it made his stomach churn with nerves at the thought of life post school. If it even ended there. He’d been pushed not to settle for four years. Good jobs wanted good degrees. He wasn’t quite sure how ready for that he was.

Thus his indifferent shrug to Ignis was unconvincing.

“That’s not an answer either,” the older man said, pushing up his glasses absently. “Nervous?”

“…More than a little,” Noctis answered honestly. He wasn’t much of a good liar in the first place, but somehow Ignis always saw through him the easiest. This wasn’t so strange. What was strange was that Noctis saw through Ignis’ façades just as easily. For such an unreadable man, one Noct’s friends tended to describe as ‘scary’ and ‘emotionless’, Noctis was easily able to pick out his tells. Always had been, for some reason. And right now, Ignis seemed as worried for Noctis as he himself was.

“There’s no reason to be. I know it’s easier said than done, believe me. I’ve been through it. But the world isn’t all that scary once you’ve found your place in it.” A sour look crossed Ignis’ face then. “More monotonous and frustrating, if anything.”

Noctis raised his eyebrows, amused. “That makes me feel better. Thanks.” This managed to pull a smile from Ignis. Noctis felt a small shock of pride run through him.

“But I suppose you won’t get to that point any faster with me bothering you—” Ignis started, though he was quickly interrupted.

“By all means, bother away.”

“…so I figured I’d best leave you to your paper.”

Despite the words, Ignis was flashing a knowing smile at Noctis that had the younger man ducking his head in embarrassment. Of course he’d say something so stupid, so eagerly. He felt his ears burning just as brightly as the gaze that was leveled at the top of his head.

“You don’t have to go anywhere,” Noctis pressed out through gritted teeth, mentally slapping himself for being so transparent. “Besides, I appreciate the help.”

“Ah yes, for your Lucian History assignment. I had written a similar report in junior year, so I suppose there’s no harm in sharing what I remember.” Ignis finished off his cup of coffee, waving the waitress over for another, before resting his elbow on the table, placing his chin in his hand. It was far more casual than Ignis normally appeared in public, and it made Noctis glad that his companion was comfortable enough around him to show that side of him.

“As helpful as you’ve been every other time I’d screwed something up? Yeah, I’m not turning that down,” Noctis said, picking up his pen and skimming the sentences leading up to where he’d left off, not missing Ignis’ grin at his statement.

“So,” the playful mood gave way to serious consideration as Ignis went into what Noctis liked to call ‘professor mode’. Honestly, Ignis would’ve been better off as a teacher than as a businessman as far as Noctis saw it. Then again, Ignis had mentioned having low patience for people when trying to teach them better… “you’re covering the Fall of Insomnia, correct?”

A nod from Noctis, some shuffling of the papers and some pastry crumbs brushed off of them.

“As I mentioned, the fall itself happened on the sixteenth of May. The news was reported worldwide the next day, which is likely why you thought the seventeenth. And the battle itself?”

“One of the Kingsglaive used the power of the Ring of the Lucii to fend off Niflheim’s monster weapon—”

“Diamond Weapon.”

“—Right, Diamond Weapon. The Old Wall was resurrected and the city was leveled from the amount of destruction they caused.” Noctis’ pen tapped against the paper as he tried to recall. He tried to imagine the sort of battle that must have been, slipping in the details that would go on his paper as a series of events. He swore he could even feel a sense of awe and horror at the idea of a daemonic weapon laying waste to a city as grand as Insomnia, despite the fact that this all happened over eight centuries ago. “It was reported that the king, the prince and the princess of Tenebrae all died in that battle, but those reports were only true for the king. Princess Lunafreya died later in Altissia during a covenant with Leviathan and the prince lived for ten more years.”

Inexplicably, a small burst of pain shot through Noctis’ heart at the thought. The thought of losing the oracle so prematurely, the thought of the suffering he and his retinue endured, the thought of a close friend, closer even than that, losing his eyesight. Which was strange, because Noctis had never known any blind person. He’d certainly never had a retinue, he was the kid the other kids poked fun at for his scrawny arms and tendency to cry at the drop of a coin –when he was a _kid_ of course– and his only friends were all in different grades, Prompto a year younger and Luna a year older. And though he did indeed know a Luna, she was as far from saintly and ethereal as one could get. And Lunafrena was apparently something entirely different from Lunafreya, or so she says. But Noctis couldn’t help it. He felt a familiarity with these stories. The same sort of familiarity he’d felt when he first met Prompto (and possibly Luna but he’d known her since they were both in diapers). The same familiarity he’d felt when he’d started going to the gym with Prompto and first met his buddy Gladiolus. The same familiarity he’d felt when he met Ignis for the first time.

…After the hospital fiasco, of course.

“Keep going,” Ignis said, interrupting Noctis’ thoughts. “The king, the prince and the princess were pronounced dead…”

“Emperor Aldercapt, along with Chancellor Izunia, took the crystal.” Chancellor Izunia, who was really a 2000 year old member of the Caelum family cursed with immortality. It was the sort of thing one heard in fairy tales, but the information had spread after the Battle of the Stone and had since become common knowledge. Even if sceptics still thought he was just some old looney bin with a bone to pick with the Lucian royal family.

“Exactly. The crystal was brought to Gralea and experimented on, leading to a breakthrough in the technology Niflheim had been developing that would supposedly block the crystal’s magic. The emperor had also been attempting to harness the crystal’s power to make himself immortal, likely spurred on by his chancellor’s apparent immortality. From Lucis, King Noctis and his personal crownsguard traveled the land, building up their power before continuing on to Altissia.”

Where everything went wrong. Noctis had never been to Accordo before…hell, had never been outside of Duscae and Leide, but he knew Altissians took the destruction of their city to heart. They feared the Tidemother beyond all other gods and rarely looked kindly on Lucians. It was no wonder they never changed their calendar. It was common knowledge for one to avoid visiting the city if they were a Lucian visiting Accordo, lest they spend the entire trip enduring dirty looks and nasty slurs.

“And the rest is history,” Noctis finished, his voice soft. He scribbled down everything he and Ignis discussed, pushing thoughts of the young king’s journey out of his mind. It was unimportant for this particular paper anyway. He was only really focusing on the fall.

“Indeed. The rest is history.” Ignis turned to face the window, looking almost wistful. The sunlight reflected in his glasses, hiding the expression in his eyes, but Noctis knew what he looked like when he was contemplating.

“What’re you thinking about?” Noctis asked, leaning forward. He hoped, in the back of his mind, that he wasn’t smudging his paper all over the underside of his arm.

“Just that it’s funny…how the destruction of one city could change the entire world.”

True. When one thought of the fall of a city, one didn’t typically imagine prophecies, gods and magic alongside it. Noctis’ eyes were drawn to the window as well, not really seeing what was there. More like looking beyond it; to the province of Cavaugh in the distance upon which sat the most interesting city to have ever existed.

“I’d always wanted to see it, y’know. Insomnia.” The entire city was a historical monument, separated from the main land of Lucis. It found its equals, size and population wise, in both Lestallum and Caritas. But Caritas was home for Noctis, for many people who couldn’t stand the crowded streets of Lestallum. Had been home to generations of the descendants of those who once lived in Insomnia. No one lived there now. People worked there, certainly, and the central government was stationed there, but it felt disrespectful to the people who died there to build new lives atop their bones. Noctis wasn’t exactly swimming in money, and so the effort and resources needed to cross the bridge and view the city up close had never really been in his budget. But he’d been saving up and one of these days…he’d like to see the city for what it is now and what it was. He’d like to visit the Citadel, a museum now with the government operating from a different building. He’d like to see the crystal.

“You know,” Ignis started, interrupting his thoughts. “I had business this weekend in Insomnia. It’d been moved back to another week due to a conflict in scheduling but…perhaps I’ll travel up there anyway to see the sights. They are quite iconic and historically relevant.”

Noctis had a feeling he knew what was coming, but it still warmed him considerably when he heard it from Ignis’ own lips.

“Would you care to accompany me?”


End file.
